Country of origin United States Original network NBC | No. of episodes 13 | |
Original release October 17, 1987 (1987-10-17) – February 27, 1988 (1988-02-27) | ||
The thirteenth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 17, 1987, and February 27, 1988.
Contents
Minimal changes occurred before the beginning of the season. Kevin Nealon was promoted to repertory status.
Although the changes to the cast were minimal there were, however, major events that impeded the show's production. During production of the season premiere, a fire broke out near Studio 8H during dress rehearsal.
Despite plans to cancel the show for the week, Steve Martin (the episode host) pushed the cast to perform, making the Steve Martin/Sting episode the only episode without a dress rehearsal.
On March 7, 1988, the Writers Guild of America went on strike, cancelling many planned episodes (and ultimately cutting the season short), including one originally planned to be hosted by original cast member Gilda Radner. (Radner would never get the chance to host due to her death from ovarian cancer the following year.) The host for the March 12, 1988 broadcast (the first episode to be cancelled due to the strike of 1988) was never confirmed.
Cast
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
Writers
New hires this season were Greg Daniels, Conan O'Brien and Bob Odenkirk.
The writers for this season included A. Whitney Brown, Tom Davis, Greg Daniels, Jim Downey, Al Franken, Jack Handey, Phil Hartman, George Meyer, Lorne Michaels, Conan O'Brien, Bob Odenkirk, Herb Sargent, David Borowitz, Rosie Shuster, Robert Smigel, Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner and Christine Zander. The head writer, like the previous season, was Jim Downey.